I never thought he was a great hockey player. His skating is terrible, and doesn't have great hands, or a great shot.

He has good vision, and playmaking ability, thats about as far as it goes. He's past his prime now. Gotta get younger.

Sign Getzlaf.

Well, your criteria for what constitutes a "great" hockey player might be a little off then.

His skating is average (not terrible, please don't let Grabner blowing by him cloud your judgment here), and yeah, he doesn't have great hands or a great shot. He is a great player in spite of those things because vision, playmaking ability and hockey IQ are far more important. These are also reasons to expect, or at a minimum hold out hope, that his decline won't be as precipitous as some are worried it might be. They don't just go away over night, as traits like strength and skating might, hence me thinking it's a bit early to panic on him.

And about getting younger, you might want to rethink that statement after re-considering the overall makeup of the team and the short-term goal of winning the Stanley Cup. Youth does not equal playoff success unfortunately.

Richards is the same as the firsthalf of last year--slow, perimeter player that doesn't produce much. It was a good idea to sit him... maybe even scratch him 1 or 2--would give Kreider another shot--see if Stepan can keep improving, put Boyle back in the middle and really see what Miller is made of... that said, he is not nearly half as bad as some say... Drury and Gomez?! They were two of the worst to ever play for this team, up there with Val Kamensky...

And it's funny how we all forget that Getzlaf was MIA for the last 2-3 years...

Getzlaf is not flawless. He looks to pass always, even when he should shoot. He's coming off a 57 point season and he looked lazy when I watched Anaheim last year (looking at Ryan).

He's also much more likely to resign than Perry, not that I think we should sign Perry.

Stick with Brad for the next two years. Maybe he'll get better like last year. Buy him out then if not. Maybe we'll get a shot at Malkin. Maybe not.

My concern is this scenario. Richards ***** the bed this season and does ok in the playoffs (similar to last year). Next year he puts up 55-60 points, then goes on to have a PPG or near PPG in the playoffs and we win the cup.

Then what's Plan B if we buy out Richards and Getzlaf doesn't go to the Rangers?

Derek Stepan will be our #1C? He's a young Richards-light, in my opinion. We'll be on the market for a #1C again.

I know Richards looks bad, but he's still contributing. He is making dumb plays, but he still has enough skill to get it done while he looks bad.

He's not the sharpest right now. Just gotta give it time.

Depends on the timing of when you can exercise a compliance buyout and when you an sign UFAs. If they overlap, it's actually pretty simple:

1) Go after Getzlaf in UFA.

2a) If he signs, then use the compliance buyout on Richards.

2b) If he goes elsewhere, keep Richards for another year.

Regardless of whether or not Getzlaf comes here, however, if this trend continues - or honestly anything we see anything other than a return to form of the Brad Richards who last played in Dallas - we need to keep the buyout in our back pocket, either for this year or next.

Whether or not his immediate replacement has already been identified should not enter the question - the contract will be an albatross unless he picks up his play significantly. Not having a 1C identified by the time the window expires is no reason to accept that burden.

I wonder if the Rangers would consider trading Gaborik for futures/young players and signing Getzlaf.

I don't think you would find practically anyone who wouldn't trade Richards for Getzlaf, the issue becomes that there will be quite a few teams looking to add him in the off-season. Toronto? Montreal? Nashville? Anaheim. NYR? Buffalo? NJ? Detroit? Calgary?

Yes, Getzlaf is a better/younger player than Brad, but he is on a another team.
To chance for the rangers to sign him in the offseason is remote.
Brad is in a bad slump, he will get over it.
There were a lot of teams vying for his services, were all those teams fooled?
And, it's not like he took the highest offer. Remember he left a lot of money on the table to come to the rangers. He wanted to be here.
He sucks ass right now, no argument there, but he will get over it.

That said, I think and hope that Richards is just struggling and isn't in full decline mode. He's obviously a solid player, he's never been overly flashy. He always just kind of quietly put up points and occasionally made a very big or timely play like in the playoffs last year. He's still on pace for 37 PTS in 48 games, which isn't stellar, but probably acceptable as long as he doesn't disappear for long stretches.

For long stretches last season Richie looked like he lost a step. Then the playoffs rolled around and Richie looked much better. But then again, half the young guys on that team played out of their minds. Their play could've boosted his game. Because, from the looks of it, he's very much the same player he was at this point last season.

For long stretches last season Richie looked like he lost a step. Then the playoffs rolled around and Richie looked much better. But then again, half the young guys on that team played out of their minds. Their play could've boosted his game. Because, from the looks of it, he's very much the same player he was at this point last season.

I agree. And I get that players go through lulls but the issue is, the Rangers are paying him close to 7 million on the cap to carry the offense. They have help for him in that department with Nash and Gaborik. So far, Richards has been by far the worst of that trio.

And to top it all off, he seems to have no chemistry whatsoever with either Gaborik or Nash.